Archive for June 2012

Apple's WWDC 2012 marked the launch of a completely revamped MacBook-"The Next-gen MacBook Pro", basically the combination of an Air and Pro.

Addressing at the keynote conference, Phil Schiller-senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, said that the new 15.4 inch MacBook Pro is thinner than his finger, coming in at 0.71- inches thick, it's just as thick as the thicker end of an Air and weighs 4.6 pounds-a little heavy for Ultrabook but definitely light for a Pro.

It's display, however supports a 2880x1800 resolution, with 220 ppi (that's 5,184,000 pixels) and most importantly Retina Display, making it world's largest-resolution notebook. Although still a 16:10 display it has higher contrast ratios, higher angle of view-thanks to the new IPS technology, and 75% less glare, even tough it's a glossy screen.

The Mac OS X Lion has been updated for the new MacBook Pro display along with the Anti-glare, Schiller said, including Mail, Safari, iMovie, iPhoto and Final Cut Pro. And thanks to the Retina display, we can now see pixel-for-pixel 1080p video in the viewer. Although the apps need to be updated for working with the new Display but just like the iPad, pixels can automatically be doubled. According to Schiller development works have already been started, this includes Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk and Diablo 3.

Now on to the inside of the machine, two giant battery back nearly covering half of the laptop along with twin fans can be seen. Specs wise the new MacBook Pro packs a 2.7Ghz, quad-core Intel core-i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.7Ghz, up to 16GB 1600Mhz RAM, along with the introduction of the next gen Kepler graphics via the GeForce GT 650M. There's up to 768GB of flash storage and seven hours of battery life with 30 days of standby time. So it's basically a quad-core Air.

In terms of connectivity, there's a SD slot, HDMI port, two Thunderbolt ports, a USB port which supports both 2.0 as well as 3.0 and a head jack. It also has a new power adapter along with an improved and thinner MagSafe 2 port. Both the Thunderbolt ports, by the way. not too shabby have peripherals for connection. Completely voting against the Ethernet jacks the new Pro will be using Adaptor dongles for FireWire and Ethernet. 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, FaceTime HD, dual microphones and stereo speakers are some other added features. It also uses custom engineered parts which includes the use of asymmetrical blades, which makes it sound quieter.

According to John Ive the production made the company "re-think" how it makes its machines. "It's the very best computer for today and the future," Ive concludes.

The MacBook with Retina display will start at $2,199 for the 2.3-Ghz quad-core i7 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage. Shipping's will start from today itself, Schiller said.

UPDATE: MacBook Pro (Retina) Trackpad Update 1.0. This update addresses an issue where the trackpad may not respond consistently to user. More information is available here.

Windows 8 the innocent looking new operating system of the Redmond Giant, Microsoft, got updated from Consumer Preview to Release Preview this week ahead of the scheduled date. Although its just an another version of an OS, once mush loved and now much maligned,but to folks of Microsoft it means much more, to them it's a bold attempt to build an Apple-proof operating system with modern visual elements via the risky Metro Design. For Microsoft to succeed with Windows on all platforms, Windows 8 has to work.

The update, free to anyone who wants to try, offers a few notable enhancements, including a trio of new apps, a "Flip ahead" browser gesture, Flash support, and a couple of updated multi-monitor features. The OS is now available in 13 languages. Mostly this update brings performance and stability fixes, along with granular tweaks.